Page 175 - The_secret_teachings_of_all_ages_Neat

their forms. The ultimate source that wisdom could cognize was the Monad, the
mysterious permanent atom of the Pythagoreans.

Pythagoras taught that both man and the universe were made in the image of God; that
both being made in the same image, the understanding of one predicated the knowledge
of the other. He further taught that there was a constant interplay between the Grand Man
(the universe) and man (the little universe).

Pythagoras believed that all the sidereal bodies were alive and that the forms of the
planets and stars were merely bodies encasing souls, minds, and spirits in the same
manner that the visible human form is but the encasing vehicle for an invisible spiritual
organism which is, in reality, the conscious individual. Pythagoras regarded the planets as
magnificent deities, worthy of the adoration and respect of man. All these deities,
however, he considered subservient to the One First Cause within whom they all existed
temporarily, as mortality exists in the midst of immortality.

The famous Pythagorean Υ signified the power of choice and was used in the Mysteries
as emblematic of the Forking of the Ways. The central stem separated into two parts, one
branching to

Click to enlarge
THE SYMMETRICAL GEOMETRIC SOLIDS.

To the five symmetrical solids of the ancients is added the sphere (1), the most perfect of all created forms.
The five Pythagorean solids are: the tetrahedron (2) with four equilateral triangles as faces; the cube (3)
with six squares as faces; the octahedron (4) with eight equilateral triangles as faces; the icosahedron (5)
with twenty equilateral triangles as faces; and the dodecahedron (6) with twelve regular pentagons as faces.

p. 67

the right and the other to the left. The branch to the right was called Divine Wisdom and
the one to the left Earthly Wisdom. Youth, personified by the candidate, walking the Path
of Life, symbolized by the central stem of the Υ, reaches the point where the Path
divides. The neophyte must then choose whether he will take the left-hand path and,
following the dictates of his lower nature, enter upon a span of folly and thoughtlessness
which will inevitably result in his undoing, or whether he will take the right-hand road
and through integrity, industry, and sincerity ultimately regain union with the immortals
in the superior spheres.